Friday, September 30, 2011
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has […]
Thursday, September 29, 2011
But here my Muse her wing maun cour, Sic flights are far beyond her power; To sing how Nannie lap and flang, (A souple jade she was and strang), And how Tam stood, like ane bewitch’d, And thought his very een enrich’d: Even Satan glowr’d, and fidg’d fu’ fain, And hotch’d and blew wi’ might […]
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
To be real on this path you must be humble— If you look down at others you’ll get pushed down the stairs. If your heart goes around on high, you fly far from this path. There’s no use hiding it— What’s inside always leaks outside. Even the one with the long white beard, the one […]
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
A single word can brighten the face of one who knows the value of words. Ripened in silence, a single word acquires a great energy for work. War is cut short by a word, and a word heals the wounds, and there’s a word that changes poison into butter and honey. Let a word mature […]
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Unmoved by what the wind does, The windows Are not rattled, nor do the various Areas Of the house make their usual racket— Creak at The joints, trusses and studs. Instead, They are still. And the maples, Able At times to raise havoc, Evoke Not a sound from their branches’ Clutches. It’s my night to […]
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen, Bright topaz denizens of a world of green. They do not fear the men beneath the tree; They pace in sleek chivalric certainty. Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool Find even the ivory needle hard to pull. The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band Sits heavily upon […]
Monday, September 19, 2011
IF: Would you say there are any basic differences between the English and the American thriller? RC: Oh yes. An American thriller is much faster paced. IF: We’ve got into a rather ‘tea and muffins’ school of writing here, I think. Policemen are much too nice and always drinking cups of tea, and inspectors puff […]
Sunday, September 18, 2011
I thought it over; it went against me to lay out strychnine for lions, and I told him that I could not see my way to do it. At that his excitement changed over into exasperation. The lions, he said, if they were left in peace over this crime, would come back another time. The […]